Left atrial myxoma in the elderly. Report of four patients over the age of 70 and review of the literature.

Myxoma of the atrium presents distinctive clinical profile, yet precise diagnosis of the tumor on the basis of clinical findings is often not made in the elderly patient as the symptoms are often attributed to "generalized arteriosclerosis of the elderly." The authors report the clinical findings in four elderly patients with left atrial myxoma in whom the diagnosis had not been clinically suspected before echocardiographic evaluation.